I have a quick ref guide template designed for online viewing, not for printing on 8.5" x 11" paper. Nevertheless, many end users like to print out docs like this and post them in their cubicles.

I know I can configure certain print dialog presets in a PDF file's properties. But I would like to incorporate a few more complex settings (see below) into the file so the end users, most using Reader, can print them without struggling with the print settings.

What we call refrying of a PDF file (creating a new PDF by printing to the Adobe PDF PostScript printer driver instance) is strongly discouraged as a very poor workflow practice. PostScript generated by Acrobat is not optimized in any reasonable way for generating PDF files, but rather for actual printing on PostScript printers. Live transparency is flattened and colors are converted to the target colorspace which for printing is typically US Web Coated SWOP (v2).

The idea of creating an n-up PDF file to reflect common printing is indeed a good one. What I would recommend is use of one of any number of imposition plug-ins for Acrobat that can achieve this effect without yielded what can best be described as a “ruined” PDF file.

To the original poster, my apologies for leading you down the garden path. Regarding the imposition workflow that Dov mentioned, we use Quite Imposing here for these types of setups, with great success.

Dov Isaacs and Turtlegirl203: I'm not familiar with "imposition" or these plug-ins. I'm lucky to have Acrobat X Pro. Before I ask my boss to spring for another tool, I need to know more. Can either of you point me to a simple explanation?

There is a fairly good explanation of imposition on the Quite Imposing website. There is a trial available there too, if you'd like to test it out. It's not the only imposition software out there, it's just the one we work with here (we are a demand printing provider, among other things). There may be others which are less costly if you don't need all the bells and whistles.

Does this plug-in incorporate print settings into the PDF while preserving the original layout or generate a new layout? I don't want to change how end users view the files online, just how they print them.

It generates a new layout with your specs. For example, you could make a new PDF which is laid out with two original pages up on one 8.5 x 11, similar to the preview in the screenshot you included in your original post. You would have to send users this additional file for printing.

I realize this isn't the exact solution you were looking for. But since it doesn't seem that you can incorporate complex print setting into your original PDF as you had hoped, I thought this might be a good workaround.